The future we build
by HoshisamaValmor
Summary: Amanda and Elijah have a conversation in February 2027.


Author's Note: A spontaneous and simple idea I've been struggling to write but that I wanted to post today July 20th.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Detroit: Become Human

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In these last few days of her life, Amanda enjoyed the simple things the most. Waking up before sunrise to see the dawn shine over the city and pierce through her window, the skies gradually changing its hues to bright, lively blue. The chirps of birds carried in by the morning. She couldn't see the nearby park, its green grass and even brighter green trees, the lovely calm lake that enhanced the landscape, but she could hear the echoes of the children's voices during the afternoon as they played there. A friendly place.

When she had spent those first days in the hospital, she recalled thinking how she fullheartedly prefered to be at home. She had resigned to the reality as it was though, until Elijah had proposed - perhaps that wasn't the word; he demanded - for her to be transfered with a complete set of personal medical team. All paid by his own pocket.

She would be lying if she said she wasn't thankful. And she would be lying if she thought Elijah would miss the money. Still, the fact that her student invested so much of his time and effort into making sure she could be comfortable and cared after made her feel extremely humbled and grateful. And proud. Proud of how that young man, who was undoubtely one of the most brilliant people she had ever known, and one of the most important people to ever grace the scientifical and technological fields, was also a full and generous human being. If fame and power were to one day entwine and distort him, that day appeared to still be distant.

Her thoughts got interrupted by the sound of the knocking at the door. Amanda turned her head away from the window.

"Good morning Amanda," the nurse greeted politely. "Mr Kamski has come to visit."

Speak of the devil.

Amanda was smiling before he poked his head inside the bedroom; when he did, she chuckled. The weariness and ache had drawn out most of her light, sinking lines in her face that had never been there before and taken most of her hair, but she refused to let it all through her into depression.

"I was just thinking of you."

"Not bad things, I hope?" Elijah jested. The nurse excused herself and left them alone, closing the door soundlessly behind her. "How are you feeling, Professor?"

"I'm alright, thank you. What about you? Exciting news from CyberLife?"

Elijah scoffed, even though he was smiling. "The production has been booming. Sometimes it does feel like it's a little too much."

Amanda nodded. She signaled to the sofa she had nearby her bed. The annoying machine beeped and let a drop of morphine fall into her bloodstream.

"Last time you mentioned that little quarry with one of the directors. How did that one go?"

"Same old same old. I mean, we always knew that when money would start to get into the equation, it would get a bit out of hand, but..."

"It's unstoppable. You said it yourself."

"I know. And you know I'm the last person to be called moralist, but I don't like some of their ideas."

"What do you think will happen?" Amanda asked him. "Do you think it will eventually grow out of control?"

"Yes."

"What will?" Elijah was breathing in as she spoke, so it took him a second to try to process her question.

"'What will' what, Professor?"

"What will grow out of control? Human greed for money? The substitution of humanity by robotics?"

"Humanity can live with androids. All those claims of record unemployment and.."

"That is a fact."

"... _that_ is moralism. There once were lamplighters and knocker-ups; do these professions matter anymore? Of course not. As for human greed? Of course it'll always be out of control. No... my point is, _I_ know why I created androids. I wanted to improve humankind, help improve our quality of life. Humans are too weak."

Not a statement Amanda could fully disagree with, seeing as her weakened body was dying of cancer and proved how fragile human beings were. But it was a bit too much of a generic and pretentious statement coming from a human genius.

"I don't want them to just be toys. That's not the point. If that gets out of control like they want to, irresponsibly, they will lose control of their own machines."

"We all know what our predictions on robotics have always been. How AI may one day replace all of us." Amanda focused her eyes on Elijah's. "Right? Do you believe it can be so, Elijah?"

He smiled, perhaps a bit sheepishly.

"Well, of course I believe. Just how many movies and tv series focused on that subject? I grew up surrounded with stuff about machines learning and overcoming humans, becoming self aware and sentient."

Amanda chuckled in cue with an annoying beep of the machine she promptely ignored. Elijah had never been an overly excited type of person - brilliant and enthusiastic, but mostly kept to himself; despite that, these little moments were glimpses to his more 'nerd' side, as some might say, a side she was thankful he had.

"Everything in our present is what once was science fiction in my youth."

"You're not that old, Professor."

"I'm certainly not getting any younger," she replied readily. Laughing made her feel good. "Humanity has always known the paths that may be paved, but not the path they are willing to take. You've helped humanity chose and step into one of these paths. Now the question remains whether or not the ending of that road will be the one we've predicted, and consequences of its outcome."

"And we are back at our old ethical discussion." Elijah seemed pleased to return to their conversations that extended beyond the certainties of mathematics and the discoveries of science, into the philosophical and morals issues of certain steps down a certain road. He had never been defensive or denied the controversial ambiguity of his work, and always cleverly responded to different perspectives while still keeping his own ground - the statement of evolution.

Amanda was probably more skeptical than he was. Then again, she was the teacher, and him the student. It was a student's task to learn and overcome their masters.

"We've discussed this often enough, Professor, but I would like to ask you again: do you think AI is a virus?"

"Of course not. I find AI to be fascinating, that's why I studied it so much and shared my knowledge with others. Viruses are nocive, destructive. Like cancer."

Her comparision might not have been the most fortunate. She was more than at peace with her fleeting and counted days. However, Elijah was still young, and death still appeared like a strange, saddening thing.

"I think viruses can be good. Depending on the perspective. Opinions, free will. Are they not structurally similar to a virus?"

"Then why are you fighting your directors, Elijah?" He stared back at her, suddenly confused. "If you want to experiment with robotic's sentiency, perhaps that path may not be a bad choice. Pain is the best teacher. If you want your machines to learn, it's through hardships that they will reach it."

"I know you are testing me, Professor," Elijah replied with a devilish smirk. "I know how you think about AI evolution."

Amanda shook her head. "What I believe is what I said earlier: we've always known where we can end up in. We've always known there would be androids identical to humans, with AI that far surpassed our own intellect; we _built_ them with that intention. Don't you have your beautiful Chloe in your home?" She winked at her student. "And we have always known that they may learn and evolve. So, why did we do it regardless? Why did _you_ build them?"

"I want to improve our quality of life."

"What about your androids?"

"I want their AI to evolve, to explore all the fascinating effects of it."

"You want them to be sentient."

"I want to see if they evolve."

"But no computer has ever turned against their users. Why and how could the android's AI break through coding and find a backdoor access?"

"Certain codes can be embedded, fragmented. Trojan horses."

"Like a crumb trail. But then they wouldn't really evolve, would they? You'd be the one to put the code there to begin with."

"No code I can write will ever make a machine evolve beyond what the machine itself allows it to. So if they pick the fractions and manage to write something new on their own, then the evolution is all theirs, not mine." Amanda agreed, but it seemed a bit too utopical; should that ever happen, wouldn't Elijah feel the accomplishment of success of his experimentation, boasting on his effort alone? "But that's a dream."

"So were androids, once," Amanda reminded him. "Say they will evolve, their code manages to be edited and they evolve beyond our control. And then what will happen, Elijah?"

He shrugged. "That's when we will learn whether or not or predictions were right, and when our predictions alone will start to be irrelevent because our opinion will no longer be the wisest."

Amanda smiled. She truly was proud of her student.

There was a new knock on the door. The nurse excused herself as she brought a tray of cookies and tea. Elijah accepted them and thanked her. The LED on her temple flickered as she smiled, quickly and thoroughly checking all of Amanda's vitals and morphine levels before exited.

They paused their philosophical conversation as they happily ate their lunch. Amanda was brainstorming through a couple more questions as she tasted the delicious butter cookies when Elijah interrupted her thoughts.

"I actually came here today because I wanted to show you this at last. The Amanda prototype is fully rendered."

He took out a tablet from his backpack and turned it on, quickly tapping through files until he had the program running. He turned the tablet to her side and Amanda saw herself rendered in the program, down to the smallest detail. Elijah surely had picked every single photo he could find and rendered it in several 3D softwares; the prototype even had a beautiful, ethereal-like wardrobe choice that made her smile and made her wish she could actually own something like that. It sure looked damn good. It was a bit unreal - and once again, humbling - to see the work he had done just because of her.

"For the time being, she'll just have administrative access to android programming, the avatar won't even start to work yet. I want to polish all the details. My concept will be to have her perform as a mind palace and _in_ a mind palace, enacting a mental landscape for uploading and checking commanding codes to simulate a human interaction, further enhancing the concept of humanity in the androids."

"Are you planning on making me the bossy teacher?"

Elijah let out a laugh that mirrored her chuckle. The sound and the feeling vibrated through her chest. It really made her feel nice.

"Of course. And I'm thinking you will only become worst in time. Evolution and all that."

God, her AI self might turn mean in time. then. An entertaining thought.

"I look good as an AI."

"I know it's not... much at all." Elijah's words made her avert her gaze from her virtual self and back into his eyes. "I wish I could do more to help you, Professor."

"Don't be dumb, Elijah, it doesn't suit you at all. You've done so much for me. Look where I am, with all the help I have. I even have my own personal androids." She incentived him to smile, even if his face was so damning grim. "There's so much science can evolve yet, Elijah. Maybe someday. Didn't you say it yourself? Everything evolves. And look here, I have already evolved."

He nodded. Words tend to sound frail in face of events, but they do prompt action - and that is what really matters. Like slow and masked codes that might one day lead to something more. Like this AI Amanda, that would be left behind after her.

"' _The span of someone's life is only the core of their existence.'_ "

"Freud?" Elijah tried, frowning immediately at realizing his mistake. Amanda smiled and shook her head.

"Terry Pratchett. Have you never read his books?"

"Not really."

" _'No one's really dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.'_ You should try to read his works some day."

Elijah's smile was frail, but it drew strength from hers.

"I will."

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the end

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Author's Note: Game information says that Amanda died in February, so this would be their last day they saw each other.

I find that quote by Terry Pratchett to be incredibly helpful.

Written mainly to Detroit fan rap 'Deviations' and to 'In The End' Cinematic cover. It's been one year since Chester has died. It may apparently have no link at all, but Chester has always been important to me and LP and Detroit helped me very recently to surpass what has effectively turned out to be one of the worst experiences of my life to date.

Thanks for reading.


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